Conservation Lands Foundation Applauds Administration for Protecting Key Landscapes in Wyoming’s Red Desert
Denver, CO – The Bureau of Land Management today issued its final Rock Springs Resource Management Plan that will guide management and protection of nearly 3.6 million acres of public land in southwestern Wyoming for the next two decades.
The plan includes conservation for important landscapes, including the Northern Red Desert, and today’s release of the proposed plan starts a 30-day public protest period and a 60-day review period for the governor’s office.
Kara Matsumoto, public lands policy director for the Conservation Lands Foundation, had this reaction to the plan:
“The plan protects the recreational economic opportunities that public lands create for local communities as well as landscapes within Wyoming’s Northern Red Desert – a vast, unfenced area of public lands that include the longest migrations in the lower 48 and the most intact sagebrush steppe ecosystem in the West, and home to large and small mammals, birds, and reptiles. While we applaud the significant conservation gains outlined in the plan, we would have liked a greater emphasis on protecting wilderness character and more oil and gas closures to protect sensitive landscapes.
“Overall, the Rock Springs RMP is a smart and detailed-oriented plan that reflects input from the many stakeholder groups in Wyoming. It conserves places where many people fish, hunt, and recreate that are important to growing local economies without impacting hundreds of existing oil and gas leases. This approach to protect natural resources in areas mostly without significant potential for producing oil and gas is supported by more than three-quarters of Wyomingites who’ve said they support allowing oil and gas drilling only in areas with high production potential.”
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Conservation Lands Foundation published this page in Latest News 2024-08-22 15:06:27 -0600
